‘Zero to Zero Point Five’: From Concept to MVP

In the dynamic landscape of the corporate world, translating a concept into tangible reality demands meticulous planning and commitment. While discourse on launching companies from ideas is abundant (Zero to One), progressing from ideas to products within a corporate context still needs to be explored.

This blog delves into the strategic maneuvers required to usher a business idea from its conceptualization to the coveted stage of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It doesn’t cover the full-scale production or commercialization of the product, which is the next half of the product development journey.

Going from idea conception to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) covers the following five stages:

Idea Assessment

The first step of the process is cherry-picking the right business idea – one that adds business value.

So, we start with a value proposition, decide the metrics of success, map the key stakeholders who can influence the project, and create a feasibility map. Read on to know how –

1. Value Proposition

Start with a thorough assessment of your idea’s intrinsic value—how it meets existing needs or resolves one or more pain points. This stage unfolds as a strategic exploration, aligning your concept with broader organizational goals and forming a vision.

This is the stage where you want clarity on:

WHAT the idea is
WHO it helps
WHY it provides value

2. Metrics

Aligning the idea with your organization’s existing strategic initiative accelerates its evolution. To the extent you can, you should define expected value in concrete terms with efficiency, effectiveness, and ROI metrics in this stage.

3. Stakeholder Mapping

You want a rough mapping of people/teams who will sponsor your idea, whose permission you need to start, and the organizational readiness for its adoption. In addition, if any specialized skills and tools are required, you want to understand the required teams and ask beforehand.

4. Feasibility

One last dimension that should be considered is the feasibility based on effort, data availability, infrastructure, knowledge, and other ongoing priorities. If the organization has competing initiatives, you want to map out the intersections at this stage.

As the outcome of this stage, based on the information collected, you should be able to determine whether your idea is worth pursuing by evaluating the effort versus value.

Wireframing

Now that your idea is carved out, wireframing will be your pivotal bridge, connecting the abstract with the concrete.

Wireframing should be a visual embodiment of thoughtful consideration and the compass that steers your product toward its true north. Identifying the key user workflows as part of the wireframing process helps you refine your ideas further and prioritize the key features.

Depending on the nature of their products, development teams sometimes skip the wireframing stage. If your product doesn’t have a front end where you don’t need to align your UI’s look and feel, you can skip this stage and move on to the next stage in the journey.

Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD can all help with quick wireframing. However, PowerPoint or paper and pencil are also equally effective. This stage aims to have something tangible that can be shown to key stakeholders to further validate the product’s need.

Socialization

Once you have a wireframe in your back pocket, the next stage is socializing the idea and securing buy-in from key people.

There are multiple steps involved in this:

Identifying key stakeholders for your product (this will include sponsors, initial champions, eventual users, and any build partners)
Adopting a socialization roadmap
Brainstorming a story map that aligns with the product
Selecting the tools for effective storytelling and presentation

While this stage provides a loose roadmap for your socialization journey, your actual socialization journey might vary depending on your organizational structure, roles played by different individuals, and the nature of your product.

It is also important to note that the process of socialization should not be looked at in a silo.

In fact, socialization happens simultaneously as you transition from a wireframe to a prototype.

The goal of this stage is to

1. Assess the excitement around your idea
2. Refine the wireframe/idea based on feedback
3. Socialize the idea so people are ready for the eventual build
4. Enable the required runway/permission to continue to the prototyping phase

By the end of this stage, you will know exactly who the people you should be talking to for validation and how you should go about getting that validation. Garnering support from leadership to secure executive buy-in is a non-negotiable prerequisite for success.

Prototyping

Prototyping is the practical bridge from a more refined concept to reality, and a prototype is built to demonstrate and validate the core functionality of your product.

Good-to-haves in this process:

Embrace the iterative process here since your prototype will evolve with each iteration.
You should have a list of features that form your backlog and the most important ones that form your prototype. If done right, this is where you should have clarity on the user experience you are going for.
In this stage, you should also aim for solution architecture design and technical validation.
Ensure you are also thinking about compliance and privacy considerations for your solution here.
This stage typically goes hand in hand with the socialization journey and is an outcome of iterative feedback and alignment.
Identifying and engaging with 1-2 key supporters/stakeholders who act as champions for the prototype is critical.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

After securing buy-in from critical stakeholders, the next task is to ‘mini scale’ the working prototype to an MVP version—a journey that requires immaculate planning and execution.

1. The Kick-Off Meeting

In this stage, it helps to have a kick-off that formally announces the project/pilot with a group of cross-functional teams and stakeholders, many of whom have already been warmed up to the idea during the socialization phase.

When a kick-off occurs, you should have already addressed the key questions in the preceding stages, and most stakeholders should feel a sense of ownership of the idea.

Here are some key things to ensure your kick-off is successful.

In the kick-off meeting, you also want to share the engagement and governance models, development plan, and UAT plan.
Typically, having some end users be part of the development and testing cycle helps with adoption post-MVP.
A clear set of metrics on what constitutes a successful MVP should be pre-defined and should act as the north star for the future.
Depending on the idea, a suitable project management framework should be adopted.

2. Post MVP – Next Steps

1. Post MVP, based on alignment with the expected impact from the idea assessment stage, the decision on whether to scale the MVP to a full product should be made. It helps to keep the tech stack for the MVP closely tied to the solution architecture in the prototyping phase.

2. Post MVP, if the decision is made to continue, the product needs to run as a proper program with dedicated funding and resourcing.
3. Having sponsors and champions from the socialization stage should make this process easier.
4. Aligning the product with ongoing strategic initiatives that are well-resourced and have momentum and interest behind them typically makes budget allocations easier. Sometimes, it might be necessary to time the MVP appropriately to align with the budget cycle.

In conclusion

Transforming a concept into reality in the corporate world is a multifaceted endeavor that requires a strategic and holistic approach. Following this step-by-step approach of assessing the idea, wireframing, socialization and storytelling, prototyping, and mini scaling to the MVP stage ensures that you can navigate the complexities of this journey with confidence and success.